Saturday, May 22, 2010

Last week we mentioned Google dropping hints about bringing encrypted web search to the search engine. Today a blog post announced it’s launch.

The encrypted search can be availed at https://www.google.com. Notice the “HTTPS” indicating it’s a secured connection.

When you search on https://www.google.com, an encrypted connection is created between your browser and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party on your network. The service includes a modified logo to help indicate that you’re searching using SSL and that you may encounter a somewhat different Google search experience, but as always, remember to check the start of the address bar for “https” and your browser lock indicators:

When you search using SSL, you won’t see links to offerings like Image Search and Maps that, for the most part, don’t support SSL at this time. Also, since SSL connections require additional time to set up the encryption between your browser and the remote web server, your experience with search over SSL might be slightly slower than your regular Google search experience.

Although the connection is over a secure channel, you aren’t free from the search giant’s prying eyes. To make sure users are under no illusion, Google explains that searching over SSL doesn’t hide the data sent to Google — it only hides that data from third parties who seek it. Google will continue to cache search data to improve users search quality and to provide better service.